Skyrim Special Edition

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Tathrin

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Tathrin

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About this mod

(Now ESL!) Adds a new craftable necklace to the game to help players of queer male and non-binary characters show-off their mlm pride. Sweep the gentlemen of Skyrim off their feet and out of their humdrum heteronormative little lives! Works the same way an AMULET OF MARA does in enticing marriage propositions...but from male npcs only!

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If you're familiar with my previous Queering Skyrim mod, you probably already know that there was discussion about the possibility of creating an entire flower culture for Nordic queerness. I thought it was a brilliant idea, but didn't know quite where to start. Lavender = lesbians was easy, thanks to the historical use of the phrase "lavender menace" both against and by queer feminists in the 1970s, but I couldn't turn up any other queer connections to specific flowers or flower types. So I turned to Handkerchief Code as a place to start, and the basic blue gave me a nice easy leap to the blue mountain flower. While "blue = masculine" is a relatively modern idea, the fictional setting of Skyrim isn't actually historically accurate to our world anyway so who cares that in Medieval Europe blue was considered a feminine color? The Nords can use blue for boys if they want to, dammit! So that's what I went with, in lieu of a better idea.

If anyone has suggestions for further Nordic Flower Culture expansions, please share! I would love to continue with this theme!

"Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead."  --Oscar Wilde

Craftable: All it takes to build one for yourself is a handful of blue mountain flowers, a leather strip to twist into a cord, and a steel ingot to melt down into the pendant! No smithing level required; you can literally build this at the first forge you come across in the game as long as you've picked up the right materials along your way out of Helgen (or wherever you started). It will show up under the Jewelry section of your crafting menu.

I have also added an existing copy of the necklace on the nightstand in Proventus Avenicci's quaters in Dragonsreach in Whiterun. (Perhaps Proventus's devotion to his jarl is more than meets the eye...or maybe he's just being a good steward, and looking after lost items until they can be returned to their owners. All headcanons are valid here.) It is marked as "player owned" so you can grab it without worrying about the guards. It also respawns. Additionally, there is an optional file for download that removes the enchantment from the craftable necklace for those who would like to make use of the design with a different magical effect. In that file ONLY the necklace in Dragonsreach can be used to substitute for an Amulet of Mara!

Built-In Enchantment:
Because it's craftable right from the start and the materials are so easily obtainable I made it a pretty mild enchantment to keep it from being overpowered for low level characters (a little bit of a persuasion boost, a smidge of extra carryweight). But like most jewelry it weighs very little, so you can leave it in your inventory while you're adventuring and put it back on when you go into town to flirt with all those dashing gents! And I do mean flirt -- because thanks to DreamLikeDragon and summerwolf who walked me through the quest-editing process, this necklace 
doubles as an Amulet of Mara in enticing marriage propositions -- but from male npcs only!

(Yes, the npcs do still refer to it as "an Amulet of Mara" in their dialogue of course -- but since Mara is the Goddess of Love, this is still an amulet of Mara, just not the Amulet of Mara, so technically...)

Compatibility:
Should be compatible with everything, but please do let me know if you run into any conflicts! There might be mild conflicts requiring a patch with other mods that alter the Marriage Quest, but it's unlikely. If you do run into any conflicts, let us know!

(Note that there are no gameplay barriers to stop female characters from wearing this as well; I didn't want to get in the way of how you express your character's gender or of any mods that you might have implemented for more genderqueer player options by putting on some kind of toggle, especially given that Bethesda has everything set to very limited gender binaries and there's no way for me to script in a nonbinary or genderfluid option. So technically, yes, you can have your female character wear this too...but what would be the point? Especially when you can get the female version here.)

I am still quite new to modding and fumbling me way around, so I am extremely open to tips and suggestions and critique. Especially those that come with very detailed, clear, simple instructions. Condescendingly detailed is fine, even. Please, walk me through it. Yes, like you would a child. Thank you.

Legendary Edition:
Yes! terminetwork has created LE backports of all three Queering Skyrim necklaces. You can find this one here.

Open Permissions:

This mod is completely free and open for community use! Do anything you want, put it in anything you want. Add it to your own mods, rewrite it, retexture it,  add it to your npcs, put it in your quests...anything.

(Well, anything as long as it isn't homophobic or transphobic, please. We're too busy including everyone else to have any room for bigots thanks bye!)

UPDATE: check out the gorgeous upscaled textures by XilaMonstrr!

Credit & Gratitude:
Most especially to DreamLikeDragon and summerwolf for making the Marriage Quest work! You two are true Heroes Of Skyrim and you have my thanks forever.

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QUEERING SKYRIM:
Not what you would call a project or a mission, exactly, given that I'm entirely new to the idea of mod-building and I don't have the talent or the time to match an ambition like that...but. It sure would be fun, huh?

The ESO has been making great strides in the area of realistically diverse identity, but Skyrim? Well, Skyrim is a little older. And that sadly means it's a heck of a lot more heteronormative. Skyrim gives us a gameworld that accepts same-sex marriage without blinking over our Dovahkiin, which is great! But what it doesn't give us is much in the way of in-world queerness. Is everybody else in Skyrim living in the closet? (They don't even have closets!) Why, when no one raises so much as an eyebrow at the player's loving gay family? It doesn't make sense. And if there's anything more immersion-breaking than the idea that everyone in Skyrim except our character and their spouse is straight, I have yet to hear of it. (Maybe it's just hard for them to meet other queer people without internet apps and pride-flag pins or handkerchief code...certainly there seem to be more than enough offers the minute our Dovahkiin puts on that Amulet of Mara, huh? Maybe we should arrange a queer meet-and-greet after we're done dealing with the dragon problem...) Basically, Skyrim needs more of a queer presence to feel like a properly developed worldspace.

So...let's fix that oversight ourselves I guess?

For my part, I don't know enough modding yet to make much of a dent alas. But what I can do is help point people to the content that is out there,
starting with this short list of all the queer mods I've found so far:

Lavender Menace Necklace by myself
The Children of Azura (Trans Lore) by myself
Simply Gay Letters by boringvlln
Same Sex Perks - Lover's Insight by Succubism
Gay Insight - A Lover's Insight Tweak by Immersion
Reliquary of Myth - Gay Lover's Allure by Rayacre
Attraction byAlwaysAPrice

Pronouns by PistachioRaptor
Immersive Gender Reassignment (IGR) by UltimateGaymer
Lesbians in Skyrim SE by xilamonstrr
Pride Capes - LGBT Pride Flag Capes by TheSilverSpoonhead
Pride Flag: Banner Replacer by evgirunslaad (for LE but it's only texture which means it works in SE too!)
Rainbow Archmage Robes by marchofflowers (for LE but it's only texture so it should work in SE too!)
LGBTQ Pride Guard Armour Retexture by InsanePixels
LGBTQ Hold Banners
by InsanePixels
Rainbow Shield and Sword by RatB0Y68
LGBTQ Dawnstar Shield Replacer by shadownugget222
Flat Chested Body With Fur Binder by marchofflowers
Top Surgery Scars Overlay - SE by : radbeetle
CBBE Barbarian by Elianora
Transgender Player/NPC forms by bigshot103 (NSFW & WIP)
Magpie's Immersion Books - The Adults' Shelf by thegildedmagpie
Trans Women of Skyrim by LokiWasTaken
Anska's Gender Reveal Party - Anska is Transmasc by KaptainCnucklz


If you know of any mods to add to this list, either hosted here at the Nexus or elsewhere, please send them my way and I'll do my best to keep this maintained and updated!

Go forth, queer adventurers! Bring a little more Rainbow Love to this grim and wintry land!